Showing posts with label Burlap. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Burlap. Show all posts

2016 Christmas Decor

It's starting to look and feel a lot like Christmas ... the presents are wrapped, the mantel is aglow, and our home is an explosion of glittery gold, bold red and deep green.




This year's mantel is decked out in three layers of garlands ... a base of vertically strung pinecones, and a lighted spruce garland, topped off with a gilded cascading garland.  Instructions for the DIY pinecone garland are HERE.



Above the mantel, a traditional spruce wreath with gold and red ball ornaments is surrounded by a gold open picture frame and a symmetrical arrangement of glittery cutout gold stars and red trees, red felt cone trees, and copper lanterns filled with gold wrapped candles.

A splash of red also warms the hearth area - this darling wood step stool painted with shiny red enamel was built by hubby's grandfather many years ago and is the perfect perch for the vintage red truck and tree.  Surprisingly, our gold painted Thanksgiving pumpkin appears to be alive and well to shine on through Christmas.



On our coffee table, a large clear glass cloche filled with red glass ball ornaments is resting on a gold framed mirror tray.  In reality, it's not a tray at all - it's a wall mirror found at Target.  Nice when items can do double duty.  

Accompanying the cloche is a little red lighted vehicle with Christmas tree.  It was originally green and received a festive makeover with red paint.  Read more about that HERE.



The two slipper chairs in the living room are adorned with red rosette pillows, and my thrifty find of the season ... a dark grey plush throw with super large fluffy pom poms.  I was thrilled to find it at Tuesday Morning for only $14.99!!!  If you're searching for these, they also had them in ivory and a light tan.



In a break from tradition, this year's large living room tree is decorated all in gold, with burlap garland and gold raffia.  It rests in a burlap filled galvanized container.  To see how we set up the tree container, click HERE.



The topper is a gold star with white lights, and glittery gold cascading sprays.  The sprays were found at Lowe's and the star topper at Target.  Tree ornaments were all items we had on hand.


Instructions for making the burlap and book page stocking ornaments can be found HERE.




The foyer decor (adjacent to the large tree) is simple and consists of a lighted tabletop urn centerpiece on the foyer table, and a simple  door wreath.

Our gift wrapping color theme this year is a combination of metallic gold, white and black.  I created and cut the gift tags from black card stock using my Silhouette Cameo, and shiny gold paper fills cutout tree openings in the tags. 




Names were written on the tags with a metallic gold Sharpie (from Lowe's).



In the dining room, a new addition this season is the hot beverage bar on the small antique chest.  The chest is just the right size for all the goodies needed to enjoy a hot cup of coffee, tea, spiced cider or cocoa.  In addition to the Keurig and K-cups, add-ins are ready to go - chocolate chips, marshmallows, flavored coffee creamer, sprinkles, candy cane stirrers and cinnamon.




The dining room table centerpiece is another large glass cloche, filled with red and gold glass ornaments and surrounded by gold and red beaded garland.  This cloche is displayed on a farmhouse style carved round wood tray with metal handles.  The tray was from Decor Steals and came in a set of two.    



A counter height bar separates our kitchen from our dining room and it's a great place for two lighted 4' counter trees in urns.  They're decorated with the handmade cinnamon ornaments from last year (instructions found HERE and HERE). 



 Next to each lighted counter tree are small gold metal ornament stands loaded with red and gold ornaments and "skirted" with red berry candle rings.  The gold metal stands were Goodwill finds this summer.



If you're still with me, have you noticed that pillows move around a lot in our home?  :)

In the kitchen, we continue the explosion of festive red.  Our kitchen is typically very neutral and at Christmas the red really makes it come alive.  



 The light fixture above the island is dressed up a bit with green garland and red and gold tinsel wreaths.  A similar wreath is also centered on the garland at the kitchen sink window.  

 Our framed Christmas countdown is in full swing on the kitchen counter, along with a mug of hot cinnamon flavored candy canes in a holiday mug perched on a white and gold dotted cupcake pedestal.  A trio of glittery gold cone trees add a little sparkle to the top of the fridge.

 The trio of cracked glass lighted orbs on the counter remain year-round because we enjoy them so much.

A white ceramic soup tureen is great for displaying Christmas crackers/poppers (which do you call them?) until Christmas day and a chubby little Santa is keeping them company.



Wrapping up this holiday tour, our master bedroom has a touch of glitz in the form of tinsel trees and matching gold wreath.


How is your holiday decor coming along?  Are you just beginning to decorate, shop for gifts and plan your menu?  Or, have you finished and are now breathing a sigh of relief?

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!

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Christmas Tree Skirt or Container?

The last couple years, I've gradually replaced all of our traditional fabric Christmas tree skirts with various containers and have found several advantages to doing so.


In our home filled with furbabies, pet hair is a constant.  And having a feline with a fondness for curling up under the tree, I was never able to keep our tree skirts fur free.  

Once we had gifts under the tree, removing the skirt to clean it, run a lint roller over it, or straighten it became quite a chore.  And seriously, how do you launder most store bought tree skirts without damaging them?  Some even state that dry cleaning and laundering are not recommended - spot clean only.  

My quest to find low maintenance options was on and that's when I decided to just "contain" our trees.

Containers are not only basically maintenance free, they are super easy to clean around - just vacuum or mop around the container - no fabric to get caught in your vacuum's rollers and no wet fabric from mopping too close to the skirt.

An added fun element is that practically any container can be used - just use your imagination!

The tree in our living room is contained in a large galvanized bucket.  You can buy a brand new, shiny galvanized bucket at home decor stores, but the most cost effective source is a feed store or tractor supply store. 

Ours came from our storage building and we'd used it for years for mixing concrete for setting fence posts.  It's weathered with rust and has holes in the bottom ... there's not a shiny spot on it.  Perfect!


To convert it to a Christmas tree container, we simply placed two pieces of 4"x4" square posts in the bottom of the bucket to elevate the tree stand.  

If you don't have square posts, use anything you have on hand that is sturdy and provides a flat base on which to place the tree stand - such as bricks, pavers or stacked flat boards.  Or, you can place the tree stand directly in the bottom of the bucket if you choose not to elevate it. 


(Yes, I labeled them - so we wouldn't accidentally use them for other projects! LOL)

We found that a round tree stand provided the best base and bought it at Home Depot.  You can find it HERE.



A few yards of burlap fabric tucked in and around the tree base hides the square posts and the tree base.

Other containers we're using include a square planter and a lampshade that I spray painted gold.  Will share those with you soon when I have the trees set up.

If we had heirloom tree skirts or those that had sentimental value, I would probably continue to use them and put up with the fuzzy mess, but as we didn't, these containers are the perfect solution for our home.  

 Do you skirt or contain your Christmas trees?  If you contain them, what type of containers do you use? 




Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!

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DIY Wood Shim Star

The Fourth of July is just around the corner and this rustic DIY wood shim project adds to the star spangled festivities!

Items needed:

  •  10 wood shims (8" long)
  •  Binder clips
  •  Tack nails
  •  Upholstery nails
  •  Craft paint in Vanilla
  •  Craft paint in Pearl White
  •  Craft paint in Bittersweet Chocolate
  •  Burlap ribbon


Begin by arranging the wood shims to form a star shape with 5 points. 






When you're pleased with the shape, use binder clips to secure the wood shims in place prior to nailing.  

 At this point, it's a good idea to accept that the star shape won't be totally and completely perfect - rustic is the look we're after.  :)  

And, you'll still have time to tweak the shape just before you put the final nails in place.




Nail one tack nail at each point where wood shims meet.



My nails were a bit too long so, using the hammer, I bent them over on the underside.

When each point was secured with a nail, I rechecked the shape and then added 1 more nail to each point to further secure it.

After a base coat of Vanilla craft paint, and a top coat of Pearl White, I dry brush distressed the star with Bittersweet Chocolate craft paint with the same method I used for our DIY Distressed Tabletop.  You can find the tutorial HERE.  

The finishing touch was to add upholstery nails to each point. 

 To provide a little texture, a length of burlap ribbon was looped through the top point of the star and serves as the hanger.
If you're hanging the star indoors or in a mild climate, wood glue or hot glue could be used in lieu of the nails.  Our front door is exposed to full afternoon sun and hot glue does not hold up well to our sweltering summer temps.

Wouldn't this be fun with larger wood shims, or longer and wider strips of wood?

 And, they'd be so cute painted gold or with metallic colors.




Do you have fun plans for the Fourth of July?  Our little community has an annual picnic and this year will be the 114th celebration!  It's small town fun ... spent with friends and neighbors, enjoying good food, music, an auction and a cake walk.  Wishing you a Happy Fourth!

Your comments are greatly appreciated and I look forward to your thoughts and ideas!  I try to respond to comments via email as soon as I can. If your email address isn't available, I will comment here. Thanks so much for visiting!


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Simple Fall Mantel

It's starting to feel like Fall in our area!  Temps have dropped a little in the evenings and mornings, and we're hopeful we'll have a few cool days soon as well.  To get into the spirit of things, I added simple Fall decor to our mantel.  


With the burlap wreath, metal frame and shutters already in place, I added a few other items found in my stash.

I have a tendency to arrange things balanced and symmetrically and really do try to step out and do things a little more free form.  But, balanced won out again this time.  

The method to my madness is to take out anything Fall-like that I have on hand and place it all around me, trying each item and combinations of items on the mantel until I find an arrangement that "feels" right to me.  Our living room becomes an unfortunate casualty during the process! 

By mixing color, textures and different heights, arrangements provide much more visual interest.

Sometimes an item may be just the right height, but is the wrong color or texture, so I weigh options for changing it to make it work.  A couple of those options are to paint the item (my #1 favorite option!), or to temporarily cover or wrap the item in fabric, design paper, etc.  


As mentioned above, the mantel was bare except for:

  • Burlap wreath - so easy to make and I will post a DIY soon
  • Wood shutters - find my DIY post HERE 
  • Framed Metal Art found at Hobby Lobby



As I went thru my stash of decor, the following made the cut and were included in the mantel arrangement:

2 Flameless candles (6" tall x 4-1/2" wide)
2 Candlesticks (9" tall)
2 Flameless candles (5" tall x 3" wide)
2 giant pinecones
2 plate chargers 
2 faux burlap pumpkins
Black striped upholstery webbing
Thick jute twine




I started by placing the two plate chargers in front of each wood shutter, on either side of the metal frame.  The chargers were once bright gold - check out my post HERE to find out how I converted them to the gorgeous Fall-ready oil rubbed bronze color. 

Next I placed the taller candles (wrapped in upholstery webbing) on the candlesticks and placed them on the outer edge of each shutter.  Then, filled in the space by adding the pumpkins, smaller candles, and giant pinecones. 



Finished off with the upholstery webbing banner made by cutting seven 7" strips for pennants.  Cut a triangle from the bottom of each pennant.  On the other end, fold the top of each pennant down 1" to slip over the jute twine.  Secured the folded end with hidden straight pins (or you can use hot glue).  The pennants slide easily along the jute twine. 


The jute twine is tied on either side of the top of the mantel to small tack nails that are concealed by the knotted twine. 



    

Regarding the framed metal art, have you noticed in any of my photos that you're actually seeing the back side of the frame? The back side is the dark metal finish, and the front of the frame is a lighter colored distressed finish that I'm not that fond of.  I've not yet decided which color to paint it, so have been displaying the darker back side for now.  Sneaky, huh?  In this pic you can see the exposed built-in hangers on the lower corners of the frame ...


A few additional details:


The cute faux burlap pumpkins were Dollar Tree finds and I love the way they're lightly glittered and sparkle in the candlelight.




 The upholstery webbing wrapped candles were secured on the back side of the webbing with a small piece of clear packing tape - can be easily removed and webbing reused.




 The lantern sitting on the floor to the left of the mantel is from Home Depot and is filled with a flameless candle surrounded by natural leaves.




The tall metal candleholder is one of my favorites!  Found at a wonderful local plant nursery, it holds 3 flameless candles and the center section lifts out for easy removal of the candles.




The tall single candleholder next to the lantern is one that I've had for years that I believe was purchased at At Home (formerly Garden Ridge Pottery).

One last note - the three hand painted birch bark candles in the fireplace are from Pottery Barn and are no longer available.  But, they currently offer them in flameless and you can find them HERE.  I love them so much I've never lit them.  


Do you find Fall decor and colors to be as appealing as I do?  The warmth of neutrals and natural elements create such a calm and cozy atmosphere. I hope you've enjoyed my Fall mantel and fireplace decor!  It's been such fun sharing it with you!



Thank you to Gluesticks, Pieced Pastimes, Christman's Creations and Must Love Home for graciously featuring this post!
 



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